12 Rounds

Gripping, original action movie with the wrestler John Cena desperately trying to find the means avoid his girlfriend to be murdered . Exciting screenplay that dispenses absurd excitement as well as amusement . Excellent thriller full of intrigue and tense, this is a fast-paced, stylized action-suspense film. The tension of this picture keeps snowballing as the clock ticks ever close for killing his lover .Detective Danny Fisher (John Cena) discovers his love interest (Ashley Scott) has been abducted by a ex-con (Aidan Gillen) tied to Fisher's past, and he'll have to successfully complete 12 challenges in order to secure her safe release. The tale appears to unfold in real time as the many stirring and intense scenes will verify. Most unusual is the device of having the victim play desperado and hunt the killer, and saving his girlfriend , as time runs out.

This mindless, interesting and ingenious film is packed with thrills, suspense, tension and lots of interminable action. Enjoyable battle of wits between two main characters, Cena and Gillen , based on risked circumstances work out pretty well . Witty argument that dispenses excitement as well as entertainment . Casting is frankly well, John Cena is fine as tormented and intrepid cop , Aidan Gillen steals the show and takes honors as psychopath who attempts to turn the tables on the victim before he can chase him and a gorgeous Ashley Scott . Plus, a good secondary cast, such as Brian White as his best friend , Steve Harris as FBI agent and Nick Gomez among them. Adequate musical score accompanying the action by Trevor Ravin and inventively photographed , using Steadicam or hand-held camera by by David Boyd reflecting splendidly New Orleans streets .The motion picture is professionally directed by Renny Harlin , he's expert on action genre such as ¨ Cliffhunger , Die hard 2 , Deep blue sea , Driven , Long kiss goodnight¨ and many others . Rating : acceptable and passable thriller movie . The picture will appeal to frenetic action buffs .

If you can just avoid asking "how?" you might enjoy this film as an exciting collection of action scenes. The villain does bad things, and the hero John Cena manages to save the day (as expected). Reality and logic are overlooked when they are in conflict with a good action scene. The fact that the action in this film could never, never ever happen is beside the point.

Very little time is spent on character development, since all you need to know is who the villain is. You find this out within a minute or two, and you can then switch off your brain for the rest of the film.

This film is immune to criticism. John Cena does not have any big acting scenes, and might even be capable of passable acting. However, he's not called upon to do much acting. His execution of the stunts and action scenes is amazing.

How can anyone complain about an illogical plot when the film was produced by the WWE and stars a professional wrestler? The movie was filmed entirely in New Orleans,and makes terrific use of dozens of locations. I probably gave it an extra point or two for this.

The scene with the "runaway streetcar" has got to be an in-joke, because the "real" Canal Street streetcar cannot travel more than a half-block at a time at a very, very slow pace. It is frequently blocked by vehicles stopped across its tracks. The havoc (if not revenge) wreaked on vehicular traffic by this runaway streetcar has got to bring delight to any local streetcar rider.

If you shuffled together the scripts for Speed and Die Hard 3, and split it in two you'd have Daniel Kunka's script for 12 Rounds. The similarities are striking, and too numerous to list. But as a crash-and-burn action film it is very entertaining, has many exiting scenes, and features a charismatic villain. Unfortunately, John Cena, as the troubled hero, is about as emotive as a draft excluder (one of those long, stuffed snakes...remember those?). Cena is likable, but he's very, very, very far from being an accomplished actor.

One year after busting an international terrorist, New Orleans cop Danny Fisher is thrown into an impossible gauntlet when the criminal breaks out of jail. He must survive twelve rounds of increasingly difficult challenges in order to save his kidnapped girlfriend. The crook himself is Miles Jackson (played nicely by Aidan Gillen), a criminal mastermind who plays the deadly game fast and loose. As I said, he's a great villain, and one that you might partially side with after the accidental death of his girlfriend during the opening.

Renny Harlin has been slumming it for a while now. Ever since Cutthroat Island tanked he's had a hard time keeping his career afloat. When one watches all of his movies from different eras it becomes clear that the man has no style of his own and simply emulates whatever the current trend happens to be. His effort in 12 rounds is merely a pastiche of all the usual CSI/Michael Bay moves. The camera never sits still, regardless of whether or not it's appropriate to the scene. Trevor Rabin provides a rather generic score, but has a couple of nice, repeating themes that bring more emotion to the scenes than Cena is able to show.

12 Rounds will never win awards or even earn itself any particular distinction among action movies, but when you're having this much fun, who cares?

The movie has a good idea and some really seat-gripping excitement. It reminds me of Die Hard with a Vengeance but even more exciting. The plot is good with enough twists to keep everyone's interests.

I have only one negative thing to say...and this is that I hate the type of camera work in this movie. It seems to be the latest rage in movies...to have jerky-action shots. Personally I think it looks amateurish and makes the watcher slightly nauseous. What a shame to do that to such an exciting film.

Even with that type of photography, I would still recommend this film and have done so. I had never seen any advertising for this film and would not have gone to see it had I not looked up a synopsis of it.

In recent years, there really hasn't been many truly great action flicks to warrant fans of the genre to go to the theaters. Sure, there has been a few entries in classic action series like Rambo and Indiana Jones hat met with varied success, but not much in the line of fresh new flicks has been produced (Except the awesome Crank). Thus we come to a film that really garnered next to no hype and slipped quietly into theaters, 12 Rounds. Is it the movie action fans have been yearning for? Danny Fisher, played by WWE superstar John Cena, is a New Orleans detective faced with a problem: an old terrorist named Miles he arrested a year back has broken out of jail and has taken Fisher's girl. Now the only way to get her back is to complete 12 rounds of a "game" that Miles created to finally get revenge on the cop that ruined his life. It's an unlikely scenario to be sure, but hey, this is an action flick, so it's just preposterous enough to make for an interesting plot. The thing I don't understand though is the fact that in the trailer for 12 Rounds, it is said to be directed by the same director who did Die Hard 2, and produced by the Speed producer. Why is this odd? Well, it is obvious right from the start that 12 Rounds is a blatant rip-off of Speed right down to some scenes being near carbon-copies. Well, at least they ripped off the cream of the action genre crop I guess.

One of the major compliments I feel I have to give to the filmmakers comes in that no noticeable CGI was used anywhere in the movie. CGI has been overused way too much as of late, so to see an action movie with good ol' fashioned stunts and explosions is great. What's better than no CGI is how all the action is done incredibly well. Between great car chases, huge explosions, and nicely choreographed fights, it's a feast for the eyes. Of course, all this awesomeness couldn't just stay awesome thanks heavily to the awful camera-work. Similar to Quantum of Solace's quick cuts and shaky camera during action sequences, 12 Rounds makes it difficult at times to tell what the hell is going on. I don't see what is wrong with traditional camera-work where viewers can actually enjoy the high-quality special effects since they can be seen in all their glory, but I digress.

Honestly, there really isn't much to say about this one. If you are an action fan that has already seen every Stallone and Schwarzenegger movie under the sun, then 12 Rounds is sure to entertain on a rainy afternoon. Granted, it doesn't bring much to the table in terms of new concepts or anything like that, but it's entertaining, and that all that really matters, right? Again, it's a complete and utter rip-off of Speed, but it's a damn fine rip-off, and I would be willing to call this Speed 2 more than that pathetic piece of crap film with the cruise ship. After jumping to conclusions when I saw John Cena as the star and it being a WWE Production, I was genuinely surprised by the entertainment value found within, and I think that if viewers go in with the right mindset, they too will have a great time.